Promotion of somatic embryogenesis in plants by Wuschel gene expression

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods for promoting somatic embryogenesis from a tissue or organ of a plant, by overexpressing a Wuschel gene in said tissue or organ. In one embodiment, such overexpression can be used as a silent selectable marker for transgenic plants. In another embodiment, such expression can be used to confer apomixis to a plant. In another embodiment, such overexpression can be used to create haploid plants, which can be used to produce dihaploid plants.

1. A method for producing a haploid plant comprising
 (a) stably transforming a plant cell with a DNA molecule comprising at least one  Wuschel  coding sequence under the control of a promoter to produce a transgenic plant cell, wherein the promoter is selected from the group consisting of a haploid tissue specific promoter, an inducible promoter and a promoter that is both haploid-tissue specific and inducible, wherein the  Wuschel  coding sequence is the coding sequence of SEQ ID NO:15; 
 (b) generating a transgenic plant from said transgenic plant cell, 
 (c) overexpressing the  Wuschel  coding sequence in a haploid tissue of said transgenic plant to produce a haploid somatic embryo, 
 (d) growing said embryo into a haploid plant. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the promoter is a haploid tissue specific promoter. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the promoter is a pollen-specific promoter, and the haploid tissue of the transgenic plant is pollen. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the promoter is an ovule-specific promoter, and the haploid tissue of the transgenic plant is ovule tissue. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the promoter is an inducible promoter. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the promoter is both haploid-tissue specific and inducible. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the promoter is pollen-specific, and the haploid plant cell is a pollen cell. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the haploid tissue is excised haploid tissue, the overexpressing step (c) is achieved in excised haploid tissue cultured in the presence of the inducer specific for the inducible promoter, for a time sufficient to induce formation of the haploid somatic embryo, followed by withdrawal of the inducer, and further wherein the growing step (d) is carried out in the absence of the inducer.